The Advocacy Group Mayor Wilson Founded Calls On Her To Turn The Surveillance Cameras Off

About a month after her underdog election victory, Mayor Katie Wilson spoke to her truest base, the Transit Riders Union (TRU), a grassroots organization dedicated to building political power for working and poor people which Wilson co-founded in 2011. She told them, “I expect you all to hold me accountable. I’m a politician just like all the other politicians now, so don’t go easy on me.”

TRU is holding up their end of the bargain. Over the weekend, TRU published a letter they sent to Wilson demanding that she remove surveillance technology from the streets of Seattle and instead invest in violence prevention programs. 

“We call on Mayor Wilson and the City Council to act urgently to scale up investments that actually decrease violence to prevent any further loss of life,” TRU wrote. “Defund the harmful surveillance cameras that make communities less safe and use our resources to fund these evidence-based violence prevention programs; the well-being of our city’s youth demands it.”

As no one will let her forget, Wilson took a firm stance against surveillance during her recent campaign, arguing the tech would not make Seattle safer as the City Council approved $1 million worth of cameras in Capitol Hill, the Central District, and the Stadium District to the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) pilot program. But when she had the power to actually stop the expansion she opposed and tear down the system entirely, Wilson switched up. Now she will install 20 cameras slated for the Stadium District, but keep them off unless the City receives a “credible threat” during the FIFA games. The rest of the expansion will wait until after an audit, but it is unclear what the audit could find that would make Wilson kill the program. 

TRU is not the only group pressuring Wilson to turn off the surveillance tech. 

Staffers and volunteers from her campaign also wrote Wilson a letter calling for an end to the RTCC program which garnered more than 1,300 signatures from people who helped Wilson get elected. At a town hall Friday, Wilson faced a long line of progressives who feel betrayed by Wilson’s moderation on surveillance. 

Wilson pushed back at her supporters-turned-critics. 

“Um, first of all, I don’t feel that I am breaking a campaign promise,” Wilson said during the Q&A portion of her townhall.”

As groans from the audience drowned her out, Wilson charged through: “I would like everyone to — listen, listen. Excuse me! Wait! Okay.” 

Wilson claimed that during the campaign she said “repeatedly” that she did not support the City Council’s expansion given the concerns raised by immigrant communities and civil liberties advocates that the federal government could abuse the footage. She also argued that surveillance did not make communities safer, but rather put them at greater risk, but she never brings that up when asking her supporters to read the fine print on her official campaign communications. 

Her on field director, Xochitl Maykovich, confronted Wilson at the town hall Friday, saying she’s “splitting hairs.” Regardless of the technicalities, Maykovich and many of Wilson’s supporters believed Wilson to hold a principled stance against police surveillance. 

It’s true that Wilson never explicitly vowed to reverse the not-yet-realized expansion, but when The Burner asked in December if she would, she did not commit to using her new power to enact the policy positions she championed just weeks prior. This called into question her commitment and political courage in general. 

Wilson said she changed her mind because she learned more (from cops!) about the City’s surveillance program. Besides, she argued that now that she’s mayor, she has to consider everyone’s perspectives. 

But the anti-surveillance sentiment extends beyond lefty-strongholds or early-adopters of Wilson’s campaign. Last month, the MLK Labor Council — a powerful “union of unions” that initially endorsed moderate Mayor Bruce Harrell and then moved to give Wilson a dual endorsement after her primary victory — unanimously passed a resolution calling on Wilson to cut the cameras. 

The coalition against surveillance will show their strength at a rally at City Hall April 10 at 12pm, Wilson’s 100th day in office. 

“Hopefully we’ll be celebrating you realigning with the platform that got you elected and got all these people to support you,” Maykovich said to Wilson at the town hall “Otherwise it will be a moment for accountability.”